My Students are Getting Worse

[Aster]

I started running some numbers for one of my course types today. Pass rates were abysmal (20%) this term and I was pretty ticked off about it. It should be over twice that. This is for a gatekeeper STEM course, at an open enrollment institution.

So I compared aggregate data over the last three semesters. This is just my own courses, with identical assessments and curriculum operating.

Pass Rates:
Fall 2019 - 20%
Spring 2019 - 61%
Fall 2018 - 54%

Withdrawals:
Fall 2019 - 32%
Spring 2019 - 27%
Fall 2018 - 13%

No Shows to Final Exam (who didn't withdraw from course):
Fall 2019 - 20%
Spring 2019 - 0%
Fall 2018 - 13%

"Good" Homework Scores (they did most of it and/or did it mostly right):
Fall 2019 - 24%
Spring 2018 - 42%
Fall 2018 - 52%

How many F-students had high absenteeism/tardies (over 5 occurrences):
Fall 2019 - 77%
Spring 2019 - 0% (but there was only a single F-grade also)
Spring 2018 - 34%

Average homework aggregate grades first half of term (before anybody withdrawals):
Fall 2019 - 50%(a low F)
Spring 2019 - 68% (a high D)
Fall 2018 - 78% (a high C)

DO YOUR HOMEWORK! COME TO CLASS!

[present_mirth]

I have one gen ed lit class like that this semester. Mercifully, the other one is fine. I don't know how to account for the differences, except that the "bad" class was slow to fill, so maybe all the slackers landed in there because the other sections were full. I also think there's kind of a social contagion effect, where students can see that other people are skipping class or arriving late or chatting their way through class, and so they figure it's OK for them to do the same things, not realizing that those are the people who are going to fail. But I don't know why this also seems to happen with behavior that should be invisible to other students, such as showing up without having done the reading. Aargh.

[Caracal]

I started running some numbers for one of my course types today. Pass rates were abysmal (20%) this term and I was pretty ticked off about it. It should be over twice that. This is for a gatekeeper STEM course, at an open enrollment institution.

So I compared aggregate data over the last three semesters. This is just my own courses, with identical assessments and curriculum operating.

Pass Rates:
Fall 2019 - 20%
Spring 2019 - 61%
Fall 2018 - 54%

Withdrawals:
Fall 2019 - 32%
Spring 2019 - 27%
Fall 2018 - 13%

No Shows to Final Exam (who didn't withdraw from course):
Fall 2019 - 20%
Spring 2019 - 0%
Fall 2018 - 13%

"Good" Homework Scores (they did most of it and/or did it mostly right):
Fall 2019 - 24%
Spring 2018 - 42%
Fall 2018 - 52%

How many F-students had high absenteeism/tardies (over 5 occurrences):
Fall 2019 - 77%
Spring 2019 - 0% (but there was only a single F-grade also)
Spring 2018 - 34%

Average homework aggregate grades first half of term (before anybody withdrawals):
Fall 2019 - 50%(a low F)
Spring 2019 - 68% (a high D)
Fall 2018 - 78% (a high C)

DO YOUR HOMEWORK! COME TO CLASS!

Maddening, but looking at those numbers, this is probably just statistical noise rather than a real trend. Your Spring 2019 class, for example actually had higher pass rates and the rest of the differences between that class and Fall 18 are pretty small. What does seem pretty clear is that your students this semester were pretty awful, but unless there's been some huge change in the student population or the people taking the class, it probably is just a blip.

[RatGuy]

I have found that my pass rate is lower in the fall semesters than in the spring. Part of this is the optimism of the new term combined with the fall distractions such as football. Classes generally stay full, but students fail because they go out of town for a football game or leave early for Fall Break and forget an assignment or exam. In Fall 2014, 12 out of 24 freshmen failed a single class. That's been the worse failure rate (though the department changed some policies after that to increase student retention).

My classes in the spring have a much higher pass rate and a much higher drop rate. At my school, March begins "darty season." That means that the partying students tend to withdraw early (or drop after I tell them they can't mathematically pass). So my smaller classes are also filled with better students, much higher averages overall.

All that is to say: students will be students, and there are lots of factors other than attendance and homework. As stated above, I suspect this isn't indicative of a trend.

[Aster]

Our geographic area did suffer a severe weather event early in the Fall term that forced everything to close down for over a week. I have anecdotally heard from colleagues (both at my college and other area colleges) that student performance is abnormally low in many classes.

So maybe that's a factor. But I have two other (different type) courses this term where grades were normal or even better than normal.

[emprof]

It's not unusual at my institution to have the occasional 'bad' semester - maybe the students are unusually poorly-prepared or badly behaved (just there for the GenEd credit) or it's a bad mix of personalities, which kills discussion.

But this fall, at least 1/3 of my department reported having the worst semester of their teaching careers. Nothing stood out as exceptional, except the number of students having the usual problems seems to have gone up. The proportion of students coming to class unprepared, just not turning in work, disappearing mid-semester, and/or attending but doing poorly on exams, spiked. Nobody is sure why, except perhaps K-12 trends and budget cuts over the last 15 years have caught up to them?

[spork]

It's not unusual at my institution to have the occasional 'bad' semester - maybe the students are unusually poorly-prepared or badly behaved (just there for the GenEd credit) or it's a bad mix of personalities, which kills discussion.

But this fall, at least 1/3 of my department reported having the worst semester of their teaching careers. Nothing stood out as exceptional, except the number of students having the usual problems seems to have gone up. The proportion of students coming to class unprepared, just not turning in work, disappearing mid-semester, and/or attending but doing poorly on exams, spiked. Nobody is sure why, except perhaps K-12 trends and budget cuts over the last 15 years have caught up to them?

Change in admissions standards? Increase in discount rate?

[Henri de Tonti]

Had a bad semester for first year grad students. Same classes I have taught before, but they are clueless about written assignments, no matter that it's the same description in the syllabus I've have always had (and had no problems previously), and I have gone over what they need to do repeatedly in class. Then I get feedback on the evaluations that I should better explain assignments. You are in grad school. Any more handholding would make this a date. I can't do your assignments for you. If you can't suss out what needs to be done with multiple explicit explanations, you need to rethink your future here (and we are no Harvard).

[Guest]

You shouldn't be asking students to evaluate the class. What on earth can they know about it?

[phattangent]

My gut tells me that I've seen something similar in recent years in my intro classes; however, my head reminds me to consider confirmation bias based on vocal subsets of the student population. I'm not sure if those subsets constitute a majority yet, but prolonged / extended adolescence theory may suggest it's becoming the norm.

[Henri de Tonti]

You shouldn't be asking students to evaluate the class. What on earth can they know about it?

Automatic university thing. I have no control over it.

[Caracal]

My gut tells me that I've seen something similar in recent years in my intro classes; however, my head reminds me to consider confirmation bias based on vocal subsets of the student population. I'm not sure if those subsets constitute a majority yet, but prolonged / extended adolescence theory may suggest it's becoming the norm.

Always be skeptical of vague feelings that students are getting worse. Teachers have always thought that. We just get older and students change.

[dr_codex]

My gut tells me that I've seen something similar in recent years in my intro classes; however, my head reminds me to consider confirmation bias based on vocal subsets of the student population. I'm not sure if those subsets constitute a majority yet, but prolonged / extended adolescence theory may suggest it's becoming the norm.

Always be skeptical of vague feelings that students are getting worse. Teachers have always thought that. We just get older and students change.

Yes, yes, O Socrates.

Plato was the worst. Always writing things down, never speaking up in seminar.

[Guest]

Automatic university thing. I have no control over it.

I have no control whether my college offers expository writing or not.

[marshwiggle]

My gut tells me that I've seen something similar in recent years in my intro classes; however, my head reminds me to consider confirmation bias based on vocal subsets of the student population. I'm not sure if those subsets constitute a majority yet, but prolonged / extended adolescence theory may suggest it's becoming the norm.

Always be skeptical of vague feelings that students are getting worse. Teachers have always thought that. We just get older and students change.

To be fair, this is a corollary to "The thing you are looking for is always in the last place you look."  The ways that students perform as you expect are unremarkable. The things that will stand out are the things you don't expect. So they could marginally improve in several areas and you wouldn't notice, but the area(s) where they decline are the ones that will get your attention.